Monday, 30 May 2016

It has been a lovely few days, did not go anywhere or speak to anyone. Time to play and think, plan and play some more. Main project is a WIP to be shared another time but completed the week-end with another tag.

No real plan in mind just playing with different mediums and ideas. Rediscovered some Grunge board which included the wings. The quirky stamp part of a set puts me in mind of Bob Fosse dance or a bizarre cocktail party. This was this trio of faces that first drew me to the set from Sparkle N Sprinkle.

Stamped the image with Memento teal ink and masked it off. Ranger distress stains and distress paint. Remember those with the tops you press down to get the colour? Used blue, green one on top of the other alternating with pink and red also one over the other, them 3 horizontal swipes with Picket Fence. Removed the mask and stamped Mon Ami from the same set and ink. Chameleon pens next in blues and greens to colour the main image. Chameleon pens don't bleed through the card like other solvent pens which along with their blend ability is a real advantage.

Thinking everything was to bright and kinda clashing rubbed over the whole tag with a baby wipe. That did the trick softening everything down, then run through the big shot with an embossing folder. Now it seemed a little flat and one dimensional, Viva clear drying crackle medium gives the girls the shine they deserve and lifts everything again. Just the wings now coloured with Imagination Crafts Starlight blue topped with Faber Castell's Silver Texture Luxe.

Saturday, 28 May 2016

Happy long week-end not a bad start but hopefully it will get better. Still playing with my new Gelatos, had a little look at Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft site for some fun tips. Playing today came up with this tag. Been a while since i 'did' a tag as well good to use the format again.

Die cut the Tag shape, and then ran it through the big shot with a Fiskars embossing plate. Rubbed paler yellow over top right and bottom left of tag and worked it with my finger to spread it over the surface of the card. A darker more vivid yellow next over the rest of the tag and blending them where the two colours met. Surface covered Orange blended over the top. A stencil of mixed arrows (it came is a Faber Castell Gelatos kit) placed over the top and a selection of the arrows coloured with a bright green crayon. There are a lot of abstract random mark style stamps around at the moment I love them for their kinda funky grunginess and so used on here. Finally a Stamping' up Sweet Pea, stamped onto the tag and again onto a fresh piece of card. Coloured both with Chameleon pens, which for the record work great over the Gelatos layers. The second flower fussy cut and attached with Prit Stick glue down the stem.

Saturday, 21 May 2016

We have a new challenge today at Twofers, Jane is our hostess with her theme of Animals. Yes Animals and I went cute mice, Jane was very surprised she did not think I have any cute stamps. Still making playing cards and needed images that would fit the size 3.5" x 2.5" and leave room for the suite symbols.

Actually I quite like these cute little mice had the stamps for years but do not get to use them much. Wood mounted rubber cannot beat it, takes the ink well and gives a good impression each time, makes it easy to colour with felt pens.

We are also inviting people to join us a Guest Designers at least while Christi is taking a break but if enough people are interested it might become a permanent feature. If you would like to join us just add GDT to your name on your entry. And, of course, the winner of the challenge will receive a $15 voucher to spend with our sponsor Alleystamp.

Wednesday, 11 May 2016

The great Chrissie in Bridlington that is. I've know her via the internet for a few years now even chatted on the phone but until yesterday we had not met. So it was big hugs and coffee all round.
Thank you for a lovely day a great visit both to see you and to see something of Bridlington. Not to mention the more exciting parts, Fish and Chips served on a polystyrene tray with a little wooden fork. The food was great the service rather lacked the 1960's charm.

I love Seaside towns here on the east coast, Boscombe used to be like they are now. There is something magical and fun about the noisy penny arcades and shops selling buckets and spades along with Greetings from xxxxxx souvenirs.

Stopped at Hobbycraft Hull on the way home finding a couple of things to stock up on. Including a set of Gelatos.

Chrissie and I swapped gifts, as you do. Part of Chrissie's gift included some fabulous glossy card, what a great surface to try my new crayons on. Each stick was used in turn down the length of the card and then different blending techniques tried. Fingers, dry paint brush, and cloth. Each of these lifts the colour slightly but I know better than to use water on glossy card.

With all the excitement of yesterday I forgot to update the Tuesday list at Challenges for Days. One of the fortnightly challenges on Tuesdays is Try it on Tuesday. Used to be Tag Tuesday when I was on the team it changed shortly after my leaving but the two events are not related. These days Chrissie is on the team and they have just started their newest challenge; spots, dots and dashes. Finding that I needed to stay at home today having updated the list I looked for inspiration and a way to use said glossy card.

Can you use rubber stamps on it, yes inks such as Archival and Kalidacolor leave excellent marks. Stamping' up white however did not show up at all. So Stamping' up splatters (Spots of) and same set dashes in place sentiment added. Now what to do? Dots, oh look what I found some yellow self adhesive dots how perfect are they? Paper flowers and some green acetate stamped with a Clarity bird image. Presto a little mixed media art completely original and all my own.

I think it fits very well with Retro Rubber - May Colours challenge, so I'm sharing this with them as well.

Sunday, 8 May 2016

Well this semi retired lark does not seem to be happening, but I am taking a week off! And I can feel myself relaxing from the get go.

Felt like playing in the craft room yesterday and just had fun.

Found this postcard blank from a few weeks back. I had 'painted' Ken Oliver colour blasts through a stencil, but decided it had not worked for the project in mind. Looking at it yesterday put me in mind of something vaguely plant like growing from it into clouds. 'drew' the plant stems with a water brush and then sprinkled green pigment over the wet area, had to repeat a couple of times as the water dried to quickly. 5 dots of water at the top of some stems sprinkled with Blue, Yellow and Red powder. The clouds used over spill of powder, the water brush was just swished over the card picking up pigment along the way.

Simple, silly and great fun.

Time then to work on this. The original blast of colour is something I came up with a few weeks ago. It is those Ken Oliver Colour Blasts again. I love it then and love it now but had no idea what to do with it, btw the paper is water colour paper which helped with the pigment movement. The problem was how do you showcase something like this? So it has sat on the table inspiring and puzzling me for weeks.

Yesterday the light came on! I recently got another of the hinged double glass frames from the Range recently with the intention of doing something with it but no idea what. This is the perfect width for my colour blob. As the watercolour paper is rough edged down the sides tearing it top and bottom was obvious. I used two Stamping up sets and felt pens to colour the images.

Here it is framed and hanging on the wall, light not so good and with glass over it perhaps not looking so good in the picture but I'm really really pleased with this.

Saturday, 7 May 2016

It's Asian this fortnight at Twofers, the theme selected by Christi. Asia is a large continent incorporating China, Japan and the Indian sub-continent as well as other nations.

This is a theme that really excited me, I love the grace and colour of all things Eastern and have a good size collection of Asian themed stamps. Having used two Oriental stamps previously in my pack of cards, this time it was an opportunity to dig out an old Tanda set for these images.

As has become the norm with my pack of cards the images were stamped and coloured with felt pens, masked and the background dusted in. The A for ace and J for Jack were added with Sakura glitter pen. The Jack is framed by the backs of Peacocks.

Do you have an up to date take on an Asian Theme, or some stamps you love but have not used for a while? Time to share your ideas with us at Twofers. Remember Christi will choose one entry to receive $15 voucher to use with our sponsor Alleystamp.

Sharing my playing cards withCreative Artiste Challenge - Mixed media (traditionally two or more mediums i.e. Acrylic and Pastel) I've used felt pens and dye based ink.Take it Make it - Anything Stamped Goes